[KS] Korean textiles?

[Frank Hoffmann]

Dear James, and All:

To start with, I have no educational background in embroideries, 
Korean or otherwise. 
But let's just do this like an engineer and or art historian, and see 
what we have here:

The second, close-up photo you attached shows three riders (as part of 
a longer procession).

All the way on the left is a rider who is holding what must be a Ruyi 
scepter (如意; Kor. 여의), and the mythical animal he sits on is a 
one-horned qilin 麒麟 (Kor. 기린), in English writing often referred to 
as unicorn. The particular ox-like, rustic way that qilin is depicted 
already tells me it is not Chinese, and that this might indeed be a 
Korean work. 

Next we have a rider on what seems to be a horse -- too elegant for a 
donkey, although I would have expected a donkey here. The rider holds 
what must be an incense burner ... or, possibly, the fungus of 
immortality.

The third rider sits on a Haet'ae 해태 (獬廌 or 獬豸) and holds a 
flower pot with, very likely so, lotus flowers.

Above the riders we see clouds. And when we look at the entire 
embroidery (first photo James Lewis sent, see his mail), we see eight 
riders and one mythical animal (?) in the middle. 

No doubt, this is a Daoist motive resp. these are Daoist motives, full 
of Daoist symbols of longevity.
The eight riders must be the "Eight Immortals" (八仙 / 팔선). Usually, 
in Korea, we see them depicted with Sansin 山神, the mountain god (or 
mountain spirit) and next to a tiger. But here, in the middle -- what 
is this? An elephant carrying ...? In any case, we see a procession of 
Daoist immortals riding through the mountains or the clouds, and a 
ninth elephant-like mythical animal (or an actual elephant) in the 
center.

The piece is large; it is long, and the image depicts a procession. 
Going from here, my first guess would be that it was used at a royal 
enthronement or possibly a royal burial. This is just a very first 
guess. 

Best,
Frank
 
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On Sat, 11 Apr 2020 16:27:20 +0100, James B. Lewis wrote:
> Dear All,
> We've turned up some textiles at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (see 
> photos below). We have no hard information about their provenance, 
> other than that they were a gift in the 1960s from someone with a 
> European name, and that the catalogue refers to them as 'Korean'.
> I throw myself on the mercy of art historians and ask if anyone seen 
> anything like this? Or, if someone can direct us to studies of 
> similar textiles?
> Yours,
> Jay Lewis
> *********************


_______________________________
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com